The worldwide smart coatings market will grow from $363 million in 2013 to almost $3.0 billion in 2018, according to a new report from industry analysis firm NanoMarkets. The report, “Worldwide Smart Coatings Markets, 2013-2020,” noted that because of their ability to quickly respond to external stimuli or resist extreme environments, smart coatings are finding new applications in several industry sectors including construction, energy, automotive, medical, consumer electronic goods and the military.

NanoMarkets believes that smart coatings will do especially well in markets – such as the military – where quality and performance, rather than price, shape purchasing decisions. Consumer markets where the customer is willing to pay a premium for functionality such as scratch resistance or enhanced energy efficiency will also be important.

This new NanoMarkets report provides an in depth analysis of the demand for smart coatings including self-cleaning coatings, anti-corrosion coatings, self-healing coatings, self-dimming coatings, and a range of biomedical smart coatings. It examines the latest products, strategies and technical developments and the hurdles that these materials must overcome to achieve market acceptance.

The report contains granular forecasts of smart coatings shipments in volume and value terms, with breakouts by application and type of material.

The report discusses the activities in the smart coating space of some of the leading specialty chemical firms and leading OEMs including 3M, Bayer, Corning, Dassault, Dow, DSM, DuPont, Eastman Chemical, Fuji Heavy Industries, Honda, Nippon Steel, Nissan, NTT, Pilkington, PPG, Saint-Gobain, Sherwin-Williams, Sumitomo and Toyota. In addition, the report covers the activities of numerous innovative smaller firms and startups.

Self-cleaning coatings are the largest segment of the smart coatings market, reaching $1.4 billion in 2018. Self-cleaning glass coatings are already in widespread use, but NanoMarkets believes there will be even more opportunities in this space because there is considerable room for improvement in the performance of existing products; additional functionality (anti-fog and anti-glare) can also be added. The fastest growing part of the self-cleaning coatings segment is for non-glass substrates such as aluminum siding, tile and textiles.

Smart anti-corrosion coatings are expected to reach $449 million by 2018, picking up revenues in extreme conditions where conventional paints do not add enough protection. NanoMarkets believes that an important future direction for this part of the smart coatings market will be multipurpose anti-corrosion coatings that address oxidation, wear and other factors. Up to now such multipurpose coatings have been available in limited quantities from small suppliers, but NanoMarkets expects these to become more widely available from the major giant specialty chemical companies.

NanoMarkets expects a dramatic shift in the markets for smart coatings in the next few years. Currently, almost 70 percent of the revenues for smart coatings come from the construction and automotive industry sectors. By 2020, NanoMarkets expects this number to have fallen to 37 percent and the energy sector emerging to account for 25 percent of all smart coatings sales. Much of this growth, NanoMarkets believes will come from sales of self-cleaning coatings for solar panels.